Five held for duping customers of online shopping portals

They posed as executives of online shopping platforms, told unsuspecting customers that they had won a car in a lottery, based on their shopping history, and cheated them of money on the pretext of seeking a processing fee for their prize, the Delhi Police said.

Five persons have been arrested for allegedly cheating customers of online shopping portals of around Rs 27 lakh on the pretext of processing a prize for them, the police said on Monday.

They posed as executives of online shopping platforms, told unsuspecting customers that they had won a car in a lottery, based on their shopping history, and cheated them of money on the pretext of seeking a processing fee for their prize, the Delhi Police said.

According to Vijayanta Arya, the deputy commissioner of police (northwest), the gang purchased the data of customers from an online firm that maintains a database. “The gang purchased the data of each customer for anywhere between Rs 2 and Rs 10,” said the DCP.

The police recovered eight mobile phones, 10 SIM cards, eight ATM cards and a database of customers from the gang of four men and a woman.

The DCP said that the gang made about Rs 27 lakh in a month of operations. “We are trying to trace those who have been duped,” said the DCP.

The officer said that the gang came under their radar after a man approached the Jahangirpuri police station earlier this month to allege that he had been duped of Rs 6,000 by a caller who posed as an executive of an online shopping portal.

“The victim was told that on the basis of his previous shopping transactions, he had been selected for a lucky draw in which the reward was a car. The victim was given the choice of either collecting the car or getting a cash prize equivalent to the value of the vehicle. Either way, the customer had to pay a processing fee of R6,000,” said the DCP.

The victim transferred the amount to the bank account number given by the caller, but could not seem to connect to the number again, following which he approached the police.

The police pursued the bank account details of the suspect to crack the case. The DCP said that the arrested persons include those who lent SIM cards and that bank accounts were opened on fake identity proofs to carry out the crime. “The SIM card and bank account used in the fraud would not be used for a fortnight after each fraud,” the DCP said.

Source:-https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/five-held-for-duping-customers-of-online-shopping-portals/story-RXWAkOyl21vEwDYXe2GWrJ.html